Spectrum - Palliative

SPECTRUM OF HOMEOPATHY

Jürgen Hansel ¦

VARIOUS REMEDIES

PALLIATIVE

was surprised by the low doses of analgesics necessary in

such a severe case, and she was also impressed by how the

patient’s energy rebounded after taking the homeopathic

remedies. From the collaboration on this case, a homeopathic

course for doctors and carers working in palliative care was

developed.

Tried-and-tested prescriptions:

based on the progress of

the illness described above, we can distinguish two phases of

homeopathic treatment. In the first few months, the patient

reacted positively to a remedy that was chosen based on

constitutional aspects. After the effect of this constitutional

simile began to diminish, in the final month of life, only pallia-

tive phase remedies, such as Carbo vegetabilis and Phosphorus

were used since these have proved especially useful in this

stage of illness – we will encounter these repeatedly in this issue

of SPECTRUM. Similarly to how, at the start of life, homeopathic

gynecology makes do with a limited set of remedies, at the end

of life there is also a relatively small number of remedies for

typical problems of this terminal phase. Whereas constitutional

treatment requires comprehensive study of homeopathy, it is

possible for palliative carers to learn how to administer these few

remedies, without the need for thorough homeopathic training.

We can only hope that, after midwives and obstetricians, pallia-

tive doctors and carers also discover the power of homeopathy

for their work with patients at the end of life.

JÜRGEN HANSEL

General physician in homeopathic

practice in Munich since 1983,

instructor in homeopathic further

education and since 1991 leader

of the annual Munich workshop

of homeopathy in the naturopathic

hospital, held in German, and or-

ganizer of seminars with Rajan

Sankaran, Jan Scholten, Andreas

Richter, and Resie Moonen.

For more information, see

www.homtage.de

(German).

Contact:

dr.hansel@t-online.de

The phases of dying: observations by

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Together with Cicely Saunders, the Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth

Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) founded the modern movement

for hospices and palliative medicine. During her work as a

hospital psychiatrist, she did not avoid the dying, as was

common at that time, but rather engaged them in conver-

sation. She related these conversations with the ill and

dying in the book “On Death and Dying” (1969), which

made her world-famous. Kübler-Ross defined the five phases

of dying in this book, in which she described her experience

of talking with 200 dying patients from the US. She later

applied the phases to the relatives and to those who develop

coping strategies in extreme situations. The observations

made by Kübler-Ross formed the foundations of the modern

movement for hospices and palliative medicine.